Long Island drug bust nets 19 suspects across 9 communities

HAUPPAUGE (WABC) -- Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota is set to announce the indictments Wednesday of 19 people accused of being involved in a cocaine network.

Spota says many of the accused dealers, like Juan Funes, of Amityville, hid their drug trade behind legitimate businesses.

In addition to busting him, there were arrests in another eight communities across the island. Funes ran a house cleaning business, and Spota noted that others operated a delicatessen, a gutter business and a construction business. Other arrests included a taxi driver, a house painter, a landscaper, a day trader and an optical lens maker.

Police confiscated a fortune in cocaine, marijuana and drug packaging materials. They also seized dozens of handguns, assault rifles and shotguns.

The defendants are residents of Amityville, Copiague, West Babylon, Babylon, Lindenhurst, Bayport, Bay Shore, Huntington and Bellrose, Queens.

An investigation in southern California last year culminated in the discovery and seizure by Los Angeles law enforcement and Homeland Security Investigation agents of 20 kilograms of cocaine prepared for delivery to a house in Suffolk County that turned out to be the home of Juan Funes.